Hospital Announces Layoffs

The initiative includes a range of purposeful modifications, including tighter productivity standards, expense reduction, increased focus on payment collection and workforce reduction of approximately 5 %. Like many hospitals across the nation, San Juan Regional Medical Center is facing unprecedented financial difficulty. This, coupled with regional economic challenges requires that the hospital make changes that will ultimately improve productivity and efficiency in how care is provided to the community.

From San Juan Regional Medical Center:

Thursday, June 27, 2019

As part of a Financial Performance Improvement Plan, San Juan Regional Medical Center has implemented a Workforce Planning Initiative to strengthen the organization financially with the overall goal to continue a long history of meeting the healthcare needs of the Four Corners area. The multifaceted initiative will align the hospital with typical industry best practices and will maintain the current nurse-to-patient ratio for inpatient care.

The initiative includes a range of purposeful modifications, including tighter productivity standards, expense reduction, increased focus on payment collection and workforce reduction of approximately 5 %.

Like many hospitals across the nation, San Juan Regional Medical Center is facing unprecedented financial difficulty. This, coupled with regional economic challenges requires that the hospital make changes that will ultimately improve productivity and efficiency in how care is provided to the community.

“San Juan County and the Four Corners have experienced considerable economic turmoil over the last several years. We have witnessed cut backs in nearly every industry. Unfortunately, our organization is not immune to these same financial challenges. Throughout our hospital’s evolution, we remain dedicated to our mission: the ability to serve our community,” said CEO, Jeff Bourgeois. “In order to remain a sustainable contributor to the Four Corners area, we must face our new financial reality head-on and make some tough decisions, including this workforce reduction. Over the past several years, we’ve experienced significant and declining supplemental payment program funding, fewer patients with commercial insurance coverage and more patients with lower reimbursement from governmental programs, a decrease in inpatient admissions due to declining area population, as well as an industry-wide transition where more services are being provided in the outpatient setting.”

The workforce initiative is projected to result in substantial annual savings and allow us to remain a strong, independent, community-owned hospital. “With these efforts, we feel confident we can meet our financial responsibilities and continue to provide high quality healthcare to the patients we are privileged to serve,” said Ron Rosen, Board Chair. “Our Board of Directors fully supports these initiatives and wishes to thank our community for their support.”